Yes, when dealing with weather, its not small changes in the average conditions that get you, its fact that the extremes are more extreme. My take on global warming is that you are putting more energy into the whole weather system, so that hot days are hotter, cold days colder, windy days blow a gale, 500 year floods come along every 10 year etc. In the case of the Maldives it would be a combination of tidal surge with extreme weather that would do the damage I suspect.

KP